Art Therapy, For You and Me!

Since getting involved with Steps With Theera Vocational Training Centre through the NIST art auction collaboration I have started teaching art therapy sessions at Steps and have been working with some of the trainees on developing their art skills into money making endeavors as well. I've never taught art therapy sessions before, I have no training other than what I've found online and what I've been able to read recently. To be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm very thankful that I'm just volunteering at this point because I'm never quite sure that what I'm doing is the 'correct' path. 

With all that being said, I'm having a blast with these sessions and the trainees seem to be loving it too. We have been having so much fun getting to know each other through creating and experimenting together. There's no assessment, just support and guided risk-taking; I love it. 

So far we have been working on a group Mandala piece in mixed-media. We looked at examples of Mandalas and similar circular designs from various cultures and talked about the significance of the circle as a symbol. Mostly we have been very loose with our designs and have just let the sessions flow and our moods dictate what appears on the board. It's a big project and we are almost finished now. Up next we will try out some sculpture techniques using recycled materials.